Speaker 1: M all right. Welcome to the State of the Lakers,
Speaker 1: presented by DASH Radio. Thank you guys so much for
Speaker 1: coming to hang out on a Monday. I hope you
Speaker 1: all had a great weekend. I think we just saw
Speaker 1: the best basketball I've seen the Lakers play in a very, very,
Speaker 1: very long time, rose especially when you counted against the
Speaker 1: talent that they had available. I guess we could look
Speaker 1: back to some games, maybe against the Phoenix Suns early
Speaker 1: in that playoff series, where they looked this good. But
Speaker 1: this is the best I've seen them look relative to
Speaker 1: their talent in a very probably since Game six of
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. This was just an incredible, almost wired,
Speaker 1: a wired performance. I'm pretty stoked about it. We were
Speaker 1: texting during the game. There's so so much to talk about,
Speaker 1: and I look forward to getting to the bottom of
Speaker 1: all of it with you. But first of all, Buddy,
Speaker 1: how are you doing and how is your weekend? It
Speaker 1: was good. I am hyped for this one. Man. This
Speaker 1: is to me the win of the year. I guess
Speaker 1: the other one could be our win against Cleveland earlier
Speaker 1: before the Calvs became who they were. But now this
Speaker 1: is the win of the year. Man, Utah is a
Speaker 1: good team. They came in tonight, I think, wanting to
Speaker 1: continue there on a little bit of a losing streak.
Speaker 1: They won their last one in Denver, second game back
Speaker 1: to back for them. But now this is a big win, man,
Speaker 1: you go. They went up Utah, came back, roaring back,
Speaker 1: went up ten, and then to come back in that
Speaker 1: fashion that fourth quarter, I think just highlighted a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff that we can to build on here. But man,
Speaker 1: it's a really great win. I'm I'm excited to get
Speaker 1: into this one. Yeah, So to start, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about, you know, the strategies we use against the
Speaker 1: Jazz and the reason the reason why I think they're
Speaker 1: super you know, uh, you know relative, you know, they're
Speaker 1: super important to projecting forward with this team because the
Speaker 1: Jazz do. The Jazz are extremely well coached, and they've
Speaker 1: run very difficult scheme to guard, and they have pieces
Speaker 1: that are, you know, similar to some of the things
Speaker 1: we're gonna see from other teams in the Western Conference
Speaker 1: that we might see in the playoffs. And you know,
Speaker 1: you and I talked a lot after the last game
Speaker 1: against the Nuggets about how the dumbest thing about what
Speaker 1: the Lakers were doing with their small ball groups was
Speaker 1: playing too many small guys, and people think of small
Speaker 1: people think of small ball having to do with the
Speaker 1: center position, and it does, you know, on its surface,
Speaker 1: but the aggregate size of those lineups that succeed in
Speaker 1: the league are usually big. Like that Clippers lineup that
Speaker 1: was so good. It's like they're getting Marcus Morris and
Speaker 1: Nicholas patum And and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. So yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no center, but everybody's everyone's huge outside of that, right,
Speaker 1: And so that was part of it. And then also
Speaker 1: with the Lakers small ball lineups, they were trying to
Speaker 1: run traditional pick and roll coverages with Lebron underneath the basket,
Speaker 1: and one of the issues with that is that in
Speaker 1: those situations, you're asking all those guards to to run
Speaker 1: through so much contact and they're small players and they're
Speaker 1: struggling with it. So that you and I talked about
Speaker 1: how this team needs to switch more because when you switch,
Speaker 1: it allows you to make up for your size deficiencies
Speaker 1: by stagnating the opponent. This is something that I talked
Speaker 1: about all the time on the show with you, and
Speaker 1: there's such a there's a there's a key reason why
Speaker 1: I believe in the strategy because the Lakers had, even
Speaker 1: with their bigger lineups that they played today, in terms
Speaker 1: of the size of the wings that they played, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot more Austin Reeves, a lot more Stanley Johnson.
Speaker 1: Even with that, the Jazz were bigger, but their size
Speaker 1: wasn't able to punish us to the extent that it
Speaker 1: made up for what we were able to do to
Speaker 1: them with our speed and our versatility on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: And that's the key, because when you switch everything, you
Speaker 1: turn a ball movement offense like the Utah Jazz into
Speaker 1: an isolation offense. And they had seventeen points in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, five of which were total garbage time. So
Speaker 1: you held them to twelve points in a pivotal basketball movement,
Speaker 1: one of the most dominant offenses in the league, because
Speaker 1: you switched everything shut off their actions forced them to
Speaker 1: try to create against a set isolation defender, and as
Speaker 1: a result, their offense fell to pieces that that philosophy
Speaker 1: is modern basketball. And then on the other end, the
Speaker 1: Lakers were running a five out concept, which removed Ruddy
Speaker 1: Gobert from the equation, forced him to guard in space
Speaker 1: where he struggled with with Stanley Johnson and his low
Speaker 1: center of gravity and his ability to kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: navigate beneath Rudy Gobert with his speed and with his strength,
Speaker 1: and so we're gonna die further into it. But I
Speaker 1: think that this style, you know, it's very indicative of
Speaker 1: what this team needs to be, what we need to
Speaker 1: be at our best. Is this a big, small poll
Speaker 1: line up that plays our bigger wings and then adapts
Speaker 1: that adopts and uses and leans into the modern defensive
Speaker 1: concepts that work in the NBA today. I don't think
Speaker 1: obviously the Jazz didn't play as well as they could have,
Speaker 1: but I don't think it was a complete coincidence that
Speaker 1: they played as bad as they did because we directly
Speaker 1: attacked their weaknesses ROJ we had purpose right with what
Speaker 1: we were doing. Like we watched that Denver game, there
Speaker 1: was a lot of stuff that just didn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: We weren't going anything with the personnel. I thought tonight,
Speaker 1: we just made Gobert garden space and Stanley Johnson obviously
Speaker 1: a big part of that. He was aggressive. I love that,
Speaker 1: you know, Stanley, he doesn't pass up jump shots, and
Speaker 1: I think that has a domino effect to to his
Speaker 1: game where he's also aggressive with the ball, and Lebron
Speaker 1: saw that he started screening for him right he was
Speaker 1: able to get to the basket. We started Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: in this game, and Dwight wasn't great through the throughout,
Speaker 1: but I thought him just starting kind of set a tone.
Speaker 1: I thought he played well. We had a nice coverage.
Speaker 1: He wasn't He didn't nice stop switching as well. We
Speaker 1: switched pretty much one through five. The only guy we
Speaker 1: didn't really switch with tonight was Malik Monk. But I
Speaker 1: thought just our coverage was great. We were flying around
Speaker 1: you talk, couldn't get any open shot. I thought Dwight
Speaker 1: took the rim away. We played him. We we had
Speaker 1: a little bit of our scheme where we played Dwight
Speaker 1: against their small ball. You saw that as well, right,
Speaker 1: and like he kind of took and he took the
Speaker 1: basket away. I thought it was great to see um.
Speaker 1: And then we just went small. We have Stanley Johnson
Speaker 1: playing the five, Lebron playing the five. We found minutes
Speaker 1: without Lebron and Russ luck. I guess we'll get into later,
Speaker 1: but it was just a great energy win. Man and
Speaker 1: Utah is a really good team. They're very similar to
Speaker 1: Phoenix to me, where they have counters to everything. Their
Speaker 1: whole offense is predicated on a Gobert screen and roll
Speaker 1: um and I thought Mike Conley kind of got going
Speaker 1: with that. He was they were kind of hunting the
Speaker 1: league monk in that way. But we just had a
Speaker 1: great overall scheme. Man and Lebron was incredible again. We
Speaker 1: had the apology right from Lebron James like I think
Speaker 1: a couple of hours earlier and he comes out tonight
Speaker 1: with this show. It was just an awesome team win
Speaker 1: and I think this is stuff we can build on. Man.
Speaker 1: Austin Reaves I think needs to play more. Stanley Johnson
Speaker 1: needs to play more. I think the young guys are
Speaker 1: definitely showing out that needs to be on the floor.
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves THHD Stanley Johnson, like those guys need to
Speaker 1: play um if you're not gonna get effort from other places.
Speaker 1: And you know, every rally started again. He had that
Speaker 1: big three. I thought he struggled throughout this night, but
Speaker 1: just seeing those guys kind of turned the game around.
Speaker 1: The Russell Westbrook big dunk. I know he kind of
Speaker 1: struggled throughout, but I thought that was a big momentum changer. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know i'veen tweeting Jason, there's a good team
Speaker 1: in here, and this is kind of what I mean,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean Like this, We're not as
Speaker 1: bad as we've shown and and it's very clear when
Speaker 1: we haven't and when we don't. But we need to
Speaker 1: play this hard like every night. I'm not expecting us
Speaker 1: to win every night. I don't even expect us to
Speaker 1: win tonight against Utah even we were up six. I
Speaker 1: was still kind of questioning it at halftime. But this
Speaker 1: is how we have to play, man. And you see
Speaker 1: the effort and you see guys flying around Austin Reason
Speaker 1: with the floater to a tip layup like those kind
Speaker 1: of stuff is you know those kind of that kind
Speaker 1: of energy is contagious. Stanley Johnson, that energy is contagious. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know his play on Rudy Gobert. And we'll get
Speaker 1: more into that, but just a good win, man. It's
Speaker 1: it's exciting, uh, to finally have like a fun space
Speaker 1: I guess to talk about to talk about this. We
Speaker 1: get to be positive for once, and so I do
Speaker 1: want to start with Lebron, because he he was the
Speaker 1: guy who you know, may or may not bendy catalyst
Speaker 1: with his with his tweet, or at least an attitude change.
Speaker 1: And I want to look at the box score for
Speaker 1: a second, because so Lebron has seven and seven, which
Speaker 1: is not a I popping stat line by any stretch
Speaker 1: of the imagination. It's not a bad one, but it's
Speaker 1: not ipopping really quickly, really quickly. Hints again tonight, that's
Speaker 1: fourteen straight games with at least twenty five plus. That's uh,
Speaker 1: the current record leader in the league. I heard them
Speaker 1: bring that up in spectrum as wow, that's crazy, um.
Speaker 1: But what's interesting about it is he was below from
Speaker 1: the field, and he was below from three, and he
Speaker 1: couldn't make a free throw. But I thought it was
Speaker 1: one of his best games of the season. And this
Speaker 1: is the huge issue that I have with you know,
Speaker 1: box score watching. It's something that I get into with
Speaker 1: people all the time when we're talking about basketball. It's like, heck,
Speaker 1: it's something I've been dealing with with Lebron fans so
Speaker 1: much over the course of the last week because I've
Speaker 1: been critical of the way he's played defense, and everyone
Speaker 1: wants to be like, oh, he's averaging thirty four over
Speaker 1: his last twelve games and saying it's like, hey, man, like,
Speaker 1: there's so much more that happens in a basketball game
Speaker 1: than it grabbed the rebound of driving kick three, or
Speaker 1: you scoring the basket, scoring the basketball. There's so much
Speaker 1: more that goes into winning a basketball game. Lebron was
Speaker 1: freaking everywhere tonight, on both ends of the floor, flying around,
Speaker 1: making plays, and then in that fourth quarter lineup with
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, Malik Monks, Stanley Johnson and Thht he basically
Speaker 1: didn't have the ball in his hands and completely controlled
Speaker 1: the game because he understood that the Jazz were struggling
Speaker 1: with how to navigate a coverage with him as the screener,
Speaker 1: and as a result, Stanley Johnson kept getting ahead of
Speaker 1: Steam because they wanted to go underneath that screen and
Speaker 1: he was the Lebron was setting it almost down at
Speaker 1: the semi circle, at the bottom of the semi circle.
Speaker 1: But again, what you saw tonight was a great example
Speaker 1: of like Lebron playing at the level of the best
Speaker 1: players in the world while having seven and seven shooting
Speaker 1: below from the field, shooting below from three and can't
Speaker 1: make a ree throw. That's the That's the idea that
Speaker 1: I'm trying to hammer home here. Like when I'm when
Speaker 1: I'm talking about what what shows me that Lebron is
Speaker 1: engaged and that he cares. This is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: This is what a good Lebron James game looks like,
Speaker 1: because against the best defenses in the league, he's probably
Speaker 1: not often going to have incredible shooting nights. You know,
Speaker 1: they're grind out games like we saw against Phoenix, They're
Speaker 1: dog fights, they're complete boxing matches, and and Lebron is
Speaker 1: such a weapon and that type of environment when he
Speaker 1: embraces that, And so I wanted to give him some
Speaker 1: some credit because he put his money where his mouth was.
Speaker 1: He he said he was sorry for the way things
Speaker 1: were going and that he promised things would get better.
Speaker 1: And then he came out and he played, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: his best game of the season, regardless of what the
Speaker 1: box score might say. So I wanted to give him
Speaker 1: a shout out. No, he was great, and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I love that. Frank kind of noticed that
Speaker 1: Lebron's energy was kind and we talked about this in
Speaker 1: the space as well, Right lebron Is starting that center.
Speaker 1: It was just not something probably does gonna be viable
Speaker 1: for a long time, for a long stretch, and he
Speaker 1: did it for a nice stretch. The Lakers won like
Speaker 1: four in a row, and he was great defensively in
Speaker 1: those But I just love that, you know, starting joy
Speaker 1: allows him that to be able to kind of work
Speaker 1: through his game in that way where he doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be the full time crazy defender. He was awesome
Speaker 1: though on that end. I thought all night. There was
Speaker 1: a few plays maybe he didn't get back to transition,
Speaker 1: but for the most part, I thought he was, you know,
Speaker 1: just a turnover creating, creating chaos on that end. And
Speaker 1: then he played the center for a few minutes, right,
Speaker 1: He played it next to Stanley Johnson in the fourth
Speaker 1: or you know with the second unit, and that second
Speaker 1: unit is really interesting. I love to kind of get
Speaker 1: into that or again th h T Austin Reeves. I
Speaker 1: believe it was Malik Monk with them as well. They yeah,
Speaker 1: they just and Stanley Johnson they just switched everything and
Speaker 1: that and they kind of gave up the lead again.
Speaker 1: I believe in that third quarter, I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: U Tah turned up the pressure. Taylor was the only
Speaker 1: ball handler where we took Brawn out in that situation.
Speaker 1: But it's just a nice kind of change up. And
Speaker 1: I think the braun at the five being a change
Speaker 1: up instead of like our just main pitch. That makes
Speaker 1: the world's a difference. And I thought, you know, against
Speaker 1: second units, against you know, a lot of teams second units,
Speaker 1: that's a tough her and Utah was unable to sustain that.
Speaker 1: We build our lead that way, um and I think
Speaker 1: that's the way this team has to go. Man, when
Speaker 1: both of us have been begging for more switching, we
Speaker 1: got it a ton more to night. It was really
Speaker 1: no noticeable. It jumped off the page and it just
Speaker 1: confounded Utah. You know, like Jason, we looked like the
Speaker 1: Clippers in the playoffs last year, you know what, like
Speaker 1: like like Stanley Johnson and that Terrence Man role a
Speaker 1: little bit right where they try to hide go bear
Speaker 1: um on on a guy who's a nonshooter, and they
Speaker 1: give that guy the ball and just say, hey, you create.
Speaker 1: And Stanley Johnson has enough ball handling, you know, skill
Speaker 1: to where he can attack the basket he saw I
Speaker 1: think you tweeted about as well. In transition he saw
Speaker 1: go bare back and he just went right into his
Speaker 1: chest and he was able to score. And I think
Speaker 1: he has that kind of you know, skill level in it.
Speaker 1: But it was cool to see us kind of out
Speaker 1: skiing Utah, I thought, in this way, and we're not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to switch against like every team like this,
Speaker 1: but it gets a team like Utah that's so that
Speaker 1: relies so heavily on screen actions to to get their offense.
Speaker 1: They just look psottos right, and they were you know,
Speaker 1: trying to kick out when there was no kickouts there,
Speaker 1: trying to find guys on the roll. I think it's
Speaker 1: funny Bart gets seals, and I thought Stanley just a
Speaker 1: great did a great job scramming them in the post
Speaker 1: where like when Malik Monks would be down there, he
Speaker 1: throws him out and he gets back on Golbert. He
Speaker 1: was just incredible. But man, our our defense was good,
Speaker 1: uh and we hit threes early. We went cold in
Speaker 1: the third, and to me, it's even more impressive Jason
Speaker 1: that you know, Utah went up ten and it looked
Speaker 1: like yeah, and we fought all the way back with
Speaker 1: with Stanley at the five, Lebron and I think Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves is on the floor to this is a good
Speaker 1: Utah team like this, This isn't like the Atlanta Hawks
Speaker 1: where I was saying, you know that I I think
Speaker 1: they're good, but you know, their record doesn't display that
Speaker 1: Utah is a really good team. I believe they're twenty
Speaker 1: and ten when Gobert plays, so just that just gives
Speaker 1: you kind of a picture of what they do. But
Speaker 1: now we we confounded him. I think this is a
Speaker 1: blueprint for we can do, at least until Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: gets back. More switching, goes small, play, our younger guys,
Speaker 1: play the youth, have some exuberants there, and I think
Speaker 1: we can kind of pick up a couple more wins here. Agree,
Speaker 1: So I think I think we need to move a
Speaker 1: little bit further to same because he was the star
Speaker 1: of the show, and ironically his little offensive flurry in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter distracted from what would have been a
Speaker 1: good game without any of that scoring. Because the way
Speaker 1: that the way that Stanley battled go Bear physically on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor was so impressive beyond like
Speaker 1: stuff that just goes unnoticed, like on so many of
Speaker 1: those fourth quarter possessions. A long jump shot was going
Speaker 1: up because perimeter players and the Lakers were doing their
Speaker 1: jobs and forcing guys to take tough shots, and here
Speaker 1: come these high rebounds off the rim. And Stand is
Speaker 1: just in their fighting with Rudy, and the most important
Speaker 1: thing is in order for you to hold your ground,
Speaker 1: you can't jump. And so he kept Rudy on the
Speaker 1: ground in that fourth quarter by staying connected to him
Speaker 1: in these box out situations. And there were there were
Speaker 1: I have to go back and watch the film, but
Speaker 1: it seemed to me like there were at least a
Speaker 1: half dozen plays in that fourth quarter where Rudy could
Speaker 1: have had an offensive rebound if literally any other Laker
Speaker 1: other than maybe Lebron was there matched up with him.
Speaker 1: And then on the weeks on the on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: those guys Austin and and Malik and t HD were
Speaker 1: coming flying in to to secure the rebound while Stanley
Speaker 1: was down there fighting. And again Stand we we can
Speaker 1: get into it like the Lebron as a as a
Speaker 1: screener things setting that low screen there around like seven
Speaker 1: eight ft from the rim. Yet did a really good
Speaker 1: job of disrupting uh Utah's defense and letting Stanley, who's
Speaker 1: really like we've talked about, it's just a big, strong
Speaker 1: athlete letting him get a head of steam go into
Speaker 1: the rim. That obviously was working, but Stanley was just
Speaker 1: doing so much else on the court. I wanted to
Speaker 1: give him that shot. Even early in the first half,
Speaker 1: he was doing that thing Dwight always does where when
Speaker 1: he's kind of like backpedaling against the guy driving to
Speaker 1: the basket, he's just kind of swiping down at the
Speaker 1: basketball with like good instincts without losing his balance. And
Speaker 1: he had a couple of steals in the first half
Speaker 1: like that. Just just an unbelievable game. As you know,
Speaker 1: our guy from Laker film room, he always describes Stanley
Speaker 1: as a big, strong athlete who runs around and does stuff.
Speaker 1: And I love that just him because that's what it is.
Speaker 1: Because when you have that type of physical frame and
Speaker 1: that type of athleticism and you're playing your ass off,
Speaker 1: it's like a wrecking ball on the basketball court, and
Speaker 1: and just good stuff just follows everywhere. And we need
Speaker 1: so much more of that, and I'm hopeful that tonight
Speaker 1: is that final kick in the butt to try to
Speaker 1: get more minutes out of him. From Frank Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: he he needs to play, and I thought he didn't
Speaker 1: play enough in Denver. I think he had like thirteen
Speaker 1: minutes in that Denver game. He's just a big small
Speaker 1: ball five who plays hard. Writing you know, everyone wonders
Speaker 1: why every Bradley starts every game, and I you know,
Speaker 1: rationale behind that that Frank is going to is every
Speaker 1: Bradley plays hard. He doesn't play well every night, but
Speaker 1: he plays hard. He has a baseline level that Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel expects and he gets that every night. And you
Speaker 1: don't here at the ceiling that Mileek Monk brings, or
Speaker 1: even the you know, chaos to Austin Reeves can bring.
Speaker 1: But every Bradley he just trusts him. And I think
Speaker 1: Stanny Johnson has kind of proven to me that he
Speaker 1: plays hard. Pretty much every moment he's on the floor,
Speaker 1: he's always running back. There's never a time where I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh man, Stanley kind of jog back. No, He's always
Speaker 1: in a full sprint. And he has good defensive instincts too,
Speaker 1: And I think it's unfair to just say that he
Speaker 1: plays hard. He's like, he has defensive instincts that are
Speaker 1: there that are perfectly fit to me for a small
Speaker 1: Ball five, especially next to Lebron, and there were nights like,
Speaker 1: I'm very high on Donovan Mitchell. I think Mitchell was
Speaker 1: one of the best. Like I guard scores, He's a
Speaker 1: playoff killer. Stanley was able to switch on him and
Speaker 1: stay in front of him, and he's strong enough. Mitchell
Speaker 1: is a super strong guy. He's strong enough where he
Speaker 1: couldn't overpower him to the rim. And you saw Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell take a bunch of like forty footers right tonight,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that because the guy on the
Speaker 1: other end is Lebron James and it's Stanley Johnson guarding
Speaker 1: those screen actors, and that's just a lot tougher to me,
Speaker 1: and Dono Mitchell is probably gonna be can be a
Speaker 1: lot better obviously than he showed tonight. But I'm just saying, like,
Speaker 1: just in a way, I think this is this is
Speaker 1: how this team needs to play. I love Dwight in
Speaker 1: the rotation. I think that just helps Uh, that just
Speaker 1: helps Lebron a lot. I thought Lebron looked like he
Speaker 1: had a lot more energy as well on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: not having to be the full time center. All this
Speaker 1: stuff is connected it and you saw the energy kind
Speaker 1: of just pick up and this team kind of goes
Speaker 1: as Lebron goes. I think Pete said as well in
Speaker 1: the LFR pod he saw Lebron be super energized, but
Speaker 1: just play him around the youth man. I think we
Speaker 1: were seeing that that's so necessary on this team. This
Speaker 1: is an old team, but it has youthful players that
Speaker 1: can play, and I think, you know, Reeves and Stanley
Speaker 1: are are part of that, and I think their minutes
Speaker 1: are just gonna go up as as we go here.
Speaker 1: But Stanley was definitely the name of the game tonight.
Speaker 1: He was incredible. They put the ball in his hands.
Speaker 1: I always say that, you know, if you show aggression
Speaker 1: to me, Lebron's gonna give you the basketball. Like Lebron
Speaker 1: can kind of feel it, right, and he could tell
Speaker 1: that Stanley was, you know aggressive. Stanley was shooting mid
Speaker 1: range pull ups, he was, you know, taking his corner
Speaker 1: threes even if they weren't going in. I just think
Speaker 1: that shows the level of aggression that has a domino
Speaker 1: effect on the rest of your game. When you when
Speaker 1: you're a passive player, that kind of shows up in
Speaker 1: all parts and to me, when you're aggressive player, that
Speaker 1: shows up in all parts, and even though the jumpers
Speaker 1: don't go in, just the fact that he takes them
Speaker 1: to me kind of leads to the attacks at the
Speaker 1: basket that he had. So yeah, he was the star
Speaker 1: of this game for sure. Yeah, and one last on Stanley.
Speaker 1: I think it's really interesting. He is, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the unique He's a very unique case of of
Speaker 1: a young talented basketball player because we see so many
Speaker 1: examples in NBA history of the you know, Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: type kind of guy who, like, you have these great
Speaker 1: physical tools, but you kind of grow up as like
Speaker 1: a forward slash center. So in the NBA you kind
Speaker 1: of turned into like a wrecking ball type of wing
Speaker 1: and then over time you get more and more skilled
Speaker 1: and then you develop into this like, you know, perimeter
Speaker 1: initiator type. That's your Jimmy Butler, like kaw while enertype. Well,
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson's kind of the opposite because like he actually
Speaker 1: growing up was a very good perimeter player. You know.
Speaker 1: He was one of the one of those mixtape heroes,
Speaker 1: one of the guys that was doing all the crazy
Speaker 1: stuff on YouTube that was getting millions of views, and
Speaker 1: came into Arizona as a star and then basically turned
Speaker 1: out as he got further in the game that he
Speaker 1: wasn't skilled enough to be that type of perimeter initiators.
Speaker 1: So then he defaulted it to Okay, I'll be the
Speaker 1: wrecking ball forward, you know, playing for Toronto, do it
Speaker 1: all these defensive things. But because of that background that
Speaker 1: he has, he actually has a good amount of polish.
Speaker 1: Like that move. I think it was pretty late in
Speaker 1: his fourth quarter run there where he like switched to
Speaker 1: his left hand after gathering on that drive from Jordan Clarkson,
Speaker 1: Like Jordan was in behind him and was loading up
Speaker 1: to try to block him off the glass, and in
Speaker 1: Stanley just switched hands and went to his left finished
Speaker 1: on the right side. Did he finish on the right side, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he finished with his left hand on the on the
Speaker 1: right side of the room. And and then like some
Speaker 1: of the footwork stuff, the way he keeps his balance,
Speaker 1: like his his comfort level to for Lebron to be like, hey,
Speaker 1: for this matchup to work, I want you to be
Speaker 1: the pick and roll ball handler here, Like for that
Speaker 1: to work, he needed to have the background that he
Speaker 1: had as a perimeter player growing up, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: coming up through high school and so I thought that
Speaker 1: was a super interesting element there, Like, you know, will
Speaker 1: Stanley have nights like that offensively that often? No, because
Speaker 1: he's just not consistent enough with those things. But you
Speaker 1: know that that type of you know, versatility that he
Speaker 1: has as a guy who can attack the close out
Speaker 1: and make a play for a teammate or go on
Speaker 1: the occasional offensive spurt just kind of raises the value
Speaker 1: that he brings because he always plays hard and because
Speaker 1: he does the dirty work. So I'm I'm a huge
Speaker 1: fan of his game. You you had mentioned Avery Bradley,
Speaker 1: I'm with you. He plays hard. He needs to be
Speaker 1: in the rotation. I think he's an NBA player. I
Speaker 1: think he belongs on the Lakers. I think he belongs
Speaker 1: on the roster. However, he needs his role needs to
Speaker 1: be swapped with one of those guys that's just that's
Speaker 1: just been better than him. He needs to be the
Speaker 1: guy who's playing, you know, one shift in the first half,
Speaker 1: one shift in the second half, you know, because you
Speaker 1: understand that you can get competent, you know, on ball,
Speaker 1: pressure defense and things like that in those moments. But
Speaker 1: he just too often is getting punished for his lack
Speaker 1: of size, and then he actually is one of the
Speaker 1: worst off ball defenders that we have on the team.
Speaker 1: He loses focus, he loses sight of his responsibility. He's
Speaker 1: on the ball and he's pressuring. He has some success
Speaker 1: there even though he gives up a lot of straightline drives.
Speaker 1: At least he's disruptive and makes it I feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: He brings some value, but you know, when we're evaluating
Speaker 1: basketball players, you know, there's every player on the team
Speaker 1: brings some value, right, Like even DeAndre Jordan brings tallness,
Speaker 1: you know. But the thing is is like the guys
Speaker 1: who start typically bring more value than the guys who don't, right,
Speaker 1: And so my thing is like leaning on him so
Speaker 1: much like pulling Reeves after he had that magnificent start
Speaker 1: to the fourth quarter. To go back to Avery Bradley,
Speaker 1: you know, even when Avery Bradley was having a rough night,
Speaker 1: that goes to show you that there's like a rotation
Speaker 1: pattern there, right, And it's like, okay, Avery starts and
Speaker 1: he closes, and then Austin kind of dispels him. That
Speaker 1: needs to be flipped, you know, Austin needs to start
Speaker 1: so that we have more consistent energy to start these games,
Speaker 1: and Austin needs to close because he's just a better
Speaker 1: basketball player right now. Then. Don't get me wrong, Austin
Speaker 1: Avery made a huge shot rubbed into my face because
Speaker 1: I was on Twitter complaining about himselfing back into the game.
Speaker 1: But the point being like, these are these are the
Speaker 1: little kings we have to work out obviously, Like even
Speaker 1: if you can replicate this effort moving forward from the
Speaker 1: whole team, and even if you can replicate some of
Speaker 1: this schematic stuff moving forward for the whole team, there
Speaker 1: are little details that have to get worked out. Like
Speaker 1: I actually disagree with you about Dwight. I don't even
Speaker 1: think we'll get into that tonight. But the point is
Speaker 1: is like there are little details that we still have
Speaker 1: to work out here, and that Avery Bradley Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: dynamic is one that I think needs to get worked out. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because I think, you know, every Badley kind
Speaker 1: of fits like the drop coverage type of scheme, and
Speaker 1: I think he fits out well with Dwight Howard. That's
Speaker 1: why I thought that starting lineup, I thought they defended
Speaker 1: at least well together. My issue with every Badley to me,
Speaker 1: he doesn't really fit a scheme when you're trying to
Speaker 1: switch everything, right, and when it's him and Malik Monks
Speaker 1: out there, and when it's him and Malik Monk out there,
Speaker 1: just there's a breaking point to when you're playing small, right,
Speaker 1: So if you're ready playing small and the guards you're
Speaker 1: playing are small like that, that there's no advantage to that, right. Plus,
Speaker 1: Avery Badley is a shooter, but he does space the
Speaker 1: floor in the way like a real shooter does. Right,
Speaker 1: He's not dynamic as a shooter. He's like he just
Speaker 1: has to be completely wide open to shoot. And in
Speaker 1: small ball, you kind of need guys who can kind
Speaker 1: of be not three level scores, but at least can
Speaker 1: take it off the bounce a little bit. That's why
Speaker 1: I just think it's that fit there is ugly, especially
Speaker 1: the Rust Monk and Avery Bradley kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: it was kind of like that's just really tough to me,
Speaker 1: especially defensively when you're trying to switch everything. Those guys
Speaker 1: kind of take the wrong angles on screens all the
Speaker 1: all the time, and those are guys you have to
Speaker 1: kind of cover for. And you and I always say
Speaker 1: when we have like two to three guys to cover for,
Speaker 1: on defense. It's tough, so I kind of understand it.
Speaker 1: But you know, Reeves played eight minutes in the first half.
Speaker 1: He ended up playing thirteen in the second half. I
Speaker 1: thought he came out because he kind of played a
Speaker 1: longer shift. Like that's my you know, just glass half
Speaker 1: full optimism there why Reeves didn't close the game. I
Speaker 1: wanted to be close, but I just thought he had
Speaker 1: a long fourth quarter shifts, so I'm thinking that's why
Speaker 1: they pulled him. The game was kind of in hander.
Speaker 1: I think we were up like six when when Reeves
Speaker 1: came out, it was like to two or three minutes left.
Speaker 1: I think, Um, and you can kind of see the
Speaker 1: game being under control. But yeah, and I think Austin
Speaker 1: eventually takes those minutes like this, it's just too loud. Um.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you about HD because I think it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I think we are tell me if I'm wrong here.
Speaker 1: I think we are actively trying to find him on
Speaker 1: ball possessions, and people are telling me, are we trying
Speaker 1: to find him on ball possessions? Are we trying to
Speaker 1: win games? Obviously you're trying to win games, but I
Speaker 1: think you have to kind of, you know, create line
Speaker 1: ups around your player skill sets, like that's just a
Speaker 1: coach's job. And I think finding a couple of minutes
Speaker 1: here where th HD can kind of the ball in
Speaker 1: his hands. And you talked about Lebron, He's becoming a
Speaker 1: full time screener in a way that I just didn't expect.
Speaker 1: And you see it also in the th HD lineups.
Speaker 1: TC got the ball in a five out setting. We
Speaker 1: always say that, you know, we always say about Russ
Speaker 1: get him five out spacing, but th HD especially can
Speaker 1: also kind of, uh, he can kind of be better
Speaker 1: for it if you kind of put him in some
Speaker 1: spacing lineups and with Stanley at the five. Sley's not
Speaker 1: a pure shooter, but he spaces the game out for
Speaker 1: him and just screen acttionsly where you can get to
Speaker 1: the basket. I thought he was under control attacking the rim.
Speaker 1: You see he has jumper getting a little bit more
Speaker 1: comfortable every game. I think he hit another three tonight.
Speaker 1: What you see from THHD because and his defense as well.
Speaker 1: I thought his defense on Mitchell and the fourth was
Speaker 1: was super impressive, being able to take off the drive
Speaker 1: and still I think you got a hand on the
Speaker 1: blood on the shot or not. He doesn't get it.
Speaker 1: He didn't get credit for a block. He did get
Speaker 1: a credit from for a block on it. I was wrong,
Speaker 1: But yes, I thought his defense on Mature it was good.
Speaker 1: What do you think? It was such a classic young
Speaker 1: guy up and down type of game because he had
Speaker 1: that stretch in the third quarter where he made a
Speaker 1: couple of offensive mistakes in a row and like miss
Speaker 1: a close out in the in the in the corner
Speaker 1: for three that led to a time out. Like you know,
Speaker 1: he had some down moments, but then he also had
Speaker 1: all of these up moments, which which is typical. Now
Speaker 1: I think, I think there's an interesting dynamics why Lebron
Speaker 1: is setting more screens. So I have a theory about this,
Speaker 1: and I'm curious to see to see what you think.
Speaker 1: So obviously, with a guy like th HT as a
Speaker 1: spot up shooter, and he has actually been shooting a
Speaker 1: little better of late, although he's still not a great
Speaker 1: three point shooter. But what you're seeing is, you know,
Speaker 1: I think Lebron understands that, like, hey, when I catch
Speaker 1: on the perimeter and I turned and I look at
Speaker 1: the defense and th HD s on the floor, or
Speaker 1: even like some guys like Austin Reeves aren't really particularly
Speaker 1: getting guarded super close, or Russ is the same thing
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson. There were stretches there in that fourth quarter
Speaker 1: where I think this is the big reason why Lebron
Speaker 1: went to the screening position there is they would put
Speaker 1: Stanley in the corner and Rudy was just kind of
Speaker 1: standing at the block, you know, not really paying much
Speaker 1: attention to Stanley. So what I think Lebron is seeing there.
Speaker 1: One of the consistent themes throughout Lebron's career is he
Speaker 1: likes to be able to give the ball to someone else.
Speaker 1: He's always like that. It's I was in a discussion
Speaker 1: with someone about this today. One of the most common
Speaker 1: misconceptions about Lebron is that he's not a ballhog. You know,
Speaker 1: when he does have the ball, he does commandeer the possession.
Speaker 1: That is true. But what he likes to do is
Speaker 1: commandeer possession. Comment here two or three possessions in a row.
Speaker 1: But then he wants to rest while he's on the floor.
Speaker 1: And one of the ways that I think he's seeing
Speaker 1: that through taking advantage of spacing and also getting him
Speaker 1: getting himself a chance to rest, is what if I
Speaker 1: set the screen, because if I set the screen, they
Speaker 1: absolutely are going to find a way to stay attached
Speaker 1: to me. Because I'm Lebron James and th HT has
Speaker 1: the basketball. Stanley Johnson has the basketball. You have to
Speaker 1: guard him because if you don't like Stanley did, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna go down the lane every time and lay
Speaker 1: it up. And so it's an interesting counter to spacing issues.
Speaker 1: It's something we talked about with Russell Lot. If you
Speaker 1: get in, if you get him, either as a screener
Speaker 1: or with the ball, you're so much of a threat
Speaker 1: that you have to be guarded. And so I thought
Speaker 1: that was an interesting counter tonight, like, Okay, you know
Speaker 1: I'm not shooting the ball is especially well. I need
Speaker 1: rests because I've been defending super hard. I need to
Speaker 1: stay effective, and I need your offense to stay effective
Speaker 1: without me staring down the defense from the rim with
Speaker 1: everybody packing the paint. So what if I start setting
Speaker 1: the ball screen? What if I take Rudy Gobert's man
Speaker 1: and turn him into the ball handler. So now Rudy
Speaker 1: freaking Gobert is guarding a Hi can roll ball handler.
Speaker 1: If I do that, I might be able to rest
Speaker 1: on the floor while also taking advantage of some of
Speaker 1: the offensive limitations as spot up shooters of some of
Speaker 1: the guys that have in the floor. It's super interesting
Speaker 1: because I think, you know, if there's one another thing
Speaker 1: with Lebron, he doesn't he wants to win first and foremost.
Speaker 1: And I thought that that was really interesting the way
Speaker 1: that he kept spamming that Stanley Johnson actually because he
Speaker 1: doesn't care if he doesn't touch the ball. He didn't
Speaker 1: care that he only had twenty five tonight, Like he
Speaker 1: just wanted to win, and the best way for them
Speaker 1: to win was to do something jan Kee to to
Speaker 1: screw with Utah's defense and putting Rudy Gobert in an
Speaker 1: on ball defense position completely threw them off. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like throwing Gobert and screen actions right, Like that's
Speaker 1: kind of the way you want to beat them. And
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, it's not just tonight either. Lebron
Speaker 1: has been moving towards the screener for a lot of
Speaker 1: these games. A lot of these, especially when we go
Speaker 1: small league, monkst the ball handler a lot, even like
Speaker 1: screening for th h T. I think it's just a
Speaker 1: nice wrinkle to our offense that we're finding gear. And
Speaker 1: I've always said, like, you know, the losses where what
Speaker 1: they are, but I think like we're starting to kind
Speaker 1: of find things that work offensively. We just need to
Speaker 1: have to have like some baseline level of defense to
Speaker 1: kind of keep up with it. And and I obviously
Speaker 1: was was better than that. I don't think we're gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, play this level of defense every night, but
Speaker 1: we can kind of keep up to it because our
Speaker 1: offense has been scoring. At least for the last throw
Speaker 1: away that Denver game, but offense has been kind of scoring.
Speaker 1: And I think Lebron being a screener is kind of
Speaker 1: interesting with it. And I guess I guess we can
Speaker 1: kind of move this to Russ because I think it's fascinating. Um, obviously,
Speaker 1: I think you think Ye had the worst game than
Speaker 1: I did. Uh, the plus minus isn't very favorable to him,
Speaker 1: but you know, I five for fourteen is what it is. Um,
Speaker 1: he's still kind of you know, in that low turnover range.
Speaker 1: He only had to turnovers to night. He's still kind
Speaker 1: of adjusting right to to this new kind of play style.
Speaker 1: And I think it's fascinating. And tell me, you know again,
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong here. But I just feel like Russ.
Speaker 1: We are kind of moving Russ more and more off ball,
Speaker 1: and we're kind of putting his possessions in very uh,
Speaker 1: very purposeful, purposeful places, right, So we're starting to just
Speaker 1: clear the left side him and just having him is so,
Speaker 1: you know, on the left side, and we're clearing that
Speaker 1: whole side. So we just throw all the other four
Speaker 1: players on the right side. Russ has a one on
Speaker 1: one attacked the ram or get to his bank shot.
Speaker 1: But it's crazy to me how off the ball he is.
Speaker 1: I remember watching the first quarter, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: Russ hasn't really initiated offense um in a long time.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've been a proponent of this. It's
Speaker 1: just interesting to watch it kind of play out in
Speaker 1: real time. As you know, Lebron also moves to a
Speaker 1: screener here, putting the bottom leak Monk's hand, putting the
Speaker 1: ball on Thhd's hands, just other ball handles, right. You know,
Speaker 1: we're moving more off ball. You are you seeing that
Speaker 1: as well as we progress here in these games. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, in the accepting the most likely reality that
Speaker 1: Russ is going to be on the team for the
Speaker 1: rest of the season. This is the best way to
Speaker 1: use him. That goes without saying I mean, I think
Speaker 1: it's unfortunate that a guy making this much is being
Speaker 1: relegated to essentially a role player in terms of just
Speaker 1: the predicament as it pertains to the Lakers in there,
Speaker 1: you know, circumstances off the court. But that said, like
Speaker 1: in this predicament, this is the best way to do it.
Speaker 1: I I what I what I have been calling out
Speaker 1: with Russ is like, hey, like another good team, another
Speaker 1: good defense and by for four teen, you know, like
Speaker 1: these there's a consistent theme at this phase of his
Speaker 1: career that when he plays against good defensive teams and
Speaker 1: good defensive players, he's just not as impactful, not nearly
Speaker 1: as impactful as he used to be. And you know,
Speaker 1: and so that that concerns me, right, because you know,
Speaker 1: in order for the Lakers to win the championship with
Speaker 1: the depth that they gave up, with the hustle that
Speaker 1: they gave up in that trade, they need Russ to
Speaker 1: play like a star, right. I mean, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: beat these good teams at the top of the West,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna beat these good teams at the top
Speaker 1: of the East. I think you need more out of
Speaker 1: Russ than what you're getting, and I don't think he
Speaker 1: can give that. So that's that's just the way that
Speaker 1: the way that I look at Russ played fine tonight.
Speaker 1: I was a little annoyed with him that he missed
Speaker 1: a box out on the first possession of the game
Speaker 1: after talking the way he did in the in the
Speaker 1: press conference, and look like, I'll never lie to you guys,
Speaker 1: Like from objectively throughout Russ's career, I've never been a
Speaker 1: fan of his brand of basketball. So I look at
Speaker 1: this with bias and I'm you know, I encourage you
Speaker 1: to find someone else who's more of a fan so
Speaker 1: that you can get the alternate perspective, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. But like the when I when I watched Russ,
Speaker 1: I I I his I find his brand of basketball
Speaker 1: to be way less impactful than other people think he is.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a coincidence that the team had
Speaker 1: their best stretch with him off the floor, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. I think I think with I always
Speaker 1: talk about fit, you know, like when when when Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D, especially when a D comes back. But
Speaker 1: this team the best version of this team is, you know,
Speaker 1: is what you saw in that fourth quarter, like this
Speaker 1: modern switchy five out attack. And I don't think Russ
Speaker 1: is attentive to enough to the details the way that
Speaker 1: guys like Austin Reeves are or Stanley Johnson are. In
Speaker 1: terms of their responsibilities, Like I was talking about, there's
Speaker 1: a huge difference between like loud hustle, which is loud plays,
Speaker 1: and real hustle, which is I never miss my responsibility. Ever,
Speaker 1: that's that's real hustle, and I think Russ struggles in
Speaker 1: that area. And I think that's why the team, you know,
Speaker 1: it seems to me, at least for me personally, when
Speaker 1: I've watched this team over the last few years, they're
Speaker 1: at their best when they primarily lean into the strengths
Speaker 1: of their superstars and then have guys around them that
Speaker 1: are true hustle players, players that never miss their responsibilities.
Speaker 1: I think that's when they're at their best. So that's
Speaker 1: just my view on that. And Russ, even though he
Speaker 1: had a bad game tonight, I mean not bad game,
Speaker 1: but even though he had a met game in my
Speaker 1: opinion tonight, even if he had a few good games
Speaker 1: in a row, I would continue to go back to
Speaker 1: that ideology because that's just the way I view the game.
Speaker 1: So that's just my take on it. Again, Like I
Speaker 1: encourage you find somebody who's more of Russ, you know,
Speaker 1: positive as somebody who's much more positive about Russ to
Speaker 1: get another angle on it. I mean, you give some
Speaker 1: of that Raj, but I think you're a little closer
Speaker 1: to me than some of the Russ stands. But that said, like,
Speaker 1: it is interesting to see the way that they use him.
Speaker 1: My thing is like, if you're gonna put him off ball,
Speaker 1: off the time, cut his minutes, and severely limit what
Speaker 1: he can do offensively, then why in the hell did
Speaker 1: you make this trade to begin with? You know, like,
Speaker 1: like that would be my question. But you're right, like,
Speaker 1: assuming he's going to be on the roster for the
Speaker 1: rest of the season, this is the way you have
Speaker 1: to use him, right, And I'm so far past that, right,
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, he's here, the trade is made. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out um and I can see
Speaker 1: them trying to figure out too. Why it's so so
Speaker 1: fascinating to me that you know, we're starting to put
Speaker 1: him even more off ball than we have, Like go
Speaker 1: watch that first quarter, the first few possessions there, it's
Speaker 1: pretty much, you know, Russ on the week side while
Speaker 1: we run like little screen actions for guys to come off.
Speaker 1: Even we ran some offensive Araby Bradley, which I thought
Speaker 1: was a little weird as well, But you know, even
Speaker 1: Bradly having the ball in his hands more, Rush is
Speaker 1: more as a cutter now. Russ is more like the
Speaker 1: set dairy attack and I think that's where he's best.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, you can still win that way,
Speaker 1: and too me, Russ doesn't have to be a third star.
Speaker 1: He definitely has to be better than he's shown. You know,
Speaker 1: he was what do you go again? Five for fourteen tonight.
Speaker 1: I thought, like, you know, four of those misses were
Speaker 1: like bad shots, like they were just you know, pull
Speaker 1: up contested jump shots that you know, we're no reason.
Speaker 1: I thought the dunk again tonight, that was the most
Speaker 1: That was the most athletic play I've seen from him
Speaker 1: this year, right, And I think that, yeah, yeah, And
Speaker 1: I saw him, you know, kind of jump and be
Speaker 1: able to dunk on Gobert in that way he was
Speaker 1: able to and I think some of that also, you know,
Speaker 1: we had Dwight Dwight had to be you know, guarded
Speaker 1: on the law. Gobert backed up and he got a
Speaker 1: dunk on him. And I think, you know, playing we
Speaker 1: always think like give us space, but I think he
Speaker 1: does like playing with the traditional center as well, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of counterintuitive in terms of spacing,
Speaker 1: but I think it's just something he's been used to,
Speaker 1: you know, playing with Steven albums for that long and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I think he's just used to playing
Speaker 1: with traditional centers. But yeah, it's just it's interesting to
Speaker 1: me how we're kind of going in this direction. And
Speaker 1: like I said, i'm a proponent of it. It's just
Speaker 1: fascinating to see how the team kind of working it.
Speaker 1: But putting him on, putting on there, and I think
Speaker 1: his impact can be in different ways. I think switching
Speaker 1: kind of induces a little bit of better stuff. I
Speaker 1: don't think he's a guy you want chasing around screens,
Speaker 1: you know, chasing Mike Conley around, trying to you know,
Speaker 1: pick him up in different areas. I like, you know,
Speaker 1: be able to switch, make him fight, you know, make
Speaker 1: him win physical battles. I think that's what you have
Speaker 1: to do with him. But you know, I think he's
Speaker 1: kind of slowly getting there. Again, the plus minus wasn't
Speaker 1: great for him tonight, but that's the kind of mover
Speaker 1: going to this low turnover us. This is what you
Speaker 1: kind of get. It's not gonna be pretty, but I
Speaker 1: just think, like it's fascinating to see where we've gone.
Speaker 1: I guess with him, not just on offense, but on
Speaker 1: defense as well. It's a it's a transition from him
Speaker 1: from the player that you know, you thought you were
Speaker 1: trading for, but this is not the guy you're kind
Speaker 1: of getting right now. You're getting more of an off
Speaker 1: ball player, even more than I even thought I would
Speaker 1: get to. So I just want to like ask you
Speaker 1: about that because I think it's interesting how the team's
Speaker 1: kind of also go in that direction. It's super interesting.
Speaker 1: But again, it's about it's about leaning and leaning into strength,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Moving forward? This is the
Speaker 1: most interesting thing to to keep in mind, because you know,
Speaker 1: one of our friends, one of our followers, just shared
Speaker 1: with me a tweet that from David Mediment that said
Speaker 1: that the Anthony Davis m R. I came back clean,
Speaker 1: which is good news. So he's a ligamented heel, so
Speaker 1: that's good news, so I means he is progressing in
Speaker 1: the right direction, although I anticipate that he'll be out
Speaker 1: for at least another couple of weeks um really quickly though.
Speaker 1: On Anthony Davis, I believe he was cleared for full contact. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, yeah, he was cleared for full contact. Wow.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. So hopefully sooner than hope. Hopefully not long.
Speaker 1: But again, so this is the thing because you know,
Speaker 1: the Lakers also pretty much took it to the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat in a very similar game without Lebron a couple
Speaker 1: of months ago. And like you said, there was that
Speaker 1: game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, which, as we know now
Speaker 1: in retrospect, was a much better team than we thought.
Speaker 1: So you know, the key here is show me what
Speaker 1: you're about. Did you guys finally have a wake up
Speaker 1: call after forty two games of an NBA season or
Speaker 1: is this just another blip in uh, you know, in
Speaker 1: a what was basically a ship storm of the season,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so that's gonna be
Speaker 1: the the curious thing to to watch to watch moving
Speaker 1: forward in terms of just how serious these guys are.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to hit on one last thing, guys
Speaker 1: before we get out of here, because I think Raj,
Speaker 1: you and I kind of fundamentally disagree on this. So
Speaker 1: I didn't want to play Dwight tonight at all, and
Speaker 1: I'm not. I don't think it's necessarily a coincidence that
Speaker 1: he was minus nine now, or at least not in
Speaker 1: the gop Aarman as I should say. I would have
Speaker 1: staggered him against Gobert now. The reason why because I
Speaker 1: agree with you. I think Dwight's a good player. I
Speaker 1: also think that Dwight uh is an awesome way to
Speaker 1: keep Lebron from playing center all freaking game wall, So
Speaker 1: I agree with you about everything that you say about that.
Speaker 1: I also think while Dwight was on the Florid tonight,
Speaker 1: in the twentiessothing minutes that he played, he did a
Speaker 1: lot of positive things, So I want to frame it
Speaker 1: like that to start. However, the reason why I think
Speaker 1: the Acres went minus nine in those minutes is when
Speaker 1: you play a traditional center against the Utah Jazz, you
Speaker 1: played directly into their strengths. The reason why the Utah
Speaker 1: Jazz has had so many so much regular season success
Speaker 1: over the course of the last two seasons is the
Speaker 1: fact that even though they don't have good perimeter defensive
Speaker 1: players like Mike Conley not a great defensive player, Jordan
Speaker 1: Clarkson not a great defensive player, Joe Angels kind of
Speaker 1: on the tail end of his career. Bogdanovitch, he's okay,
Speaker 1: He's had his moments. He can do well in certain matchups,
Speaker 1: but he's not a great defensive player. Roy so Neil
Speaker 1: there is their best defensive player on the perimeter. He's
Speaker 1: a little bit undersized against bigger wings. Rudy or excuse me,
Speaker 1: Rudy Gay is a little bit inconsistent with his effort.
Speaker 1: They're not a great defensive team in theory when you
Speaker 1: look at their personnel, but they've got Rudy Gobert, and
Speaker 1: so when you play into their system, they they can
Speaker 1: succeed with you with their elite defensive scheme of just
Speaker 1: chasing people off the line and funneling towards Rudy Gobert.
Speaker 1: And one of the problems with playing Dwight Howard in
Speaker 1: those minute and the reason why I disagreed with it,
Speaker 1: is like, for instance, we were minus nine, but in
Speaker 1: that first shift that he played with the starters Lebron
Speaker 1: and Russ each made to pull up jump shots off
Speaker 1: the dribble, and Avery Bradley made it. Three our first
Speaker 1: thirteen points, we're all on threes, four of which we're contested.
Speaker 1: So there we're not on three is for all our
Speaker 1: first thirteen points, we're all on jump shots. Four of
Speaker 1: the five were contested. So my point is is like
Speaker 1: some of that's a little bit of fool's gold. Like
Speaker 1: if two of those miss maybe the Dwight minutes instead
Speaker 1: of being minus nine or minus fourteen, and now we're
Speaker 1: having a different type of conversation. So when when we're
Speaker 1: talking strategy, I'm really curious to look back at this
Speaker 1: game in the lineups, because I also disagreed without going
Speaker 1: with with going without Lebron and Russ at the same time,
Speaker 1: so because I know they had a little bit of
Speaker 1: success in the first stat just because they were playing
Speaker 1: so much harder than Utah, but then that same lineup
Speaker 1: was an absolute catastrophe in the second half, simply because
Speaker 1: they just don't have any offensive decision making on the floor.
Speaker 1: You're ending a lot on th h T and he's
Speaker 1: just very young and a veteran, a good veteran team
Speaker 1: is gonna make th HD look bad. So I'm curious.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look at the numbers later tonight or early
Speaker 1: in the morning. But I bet you tonight, in the
Speaker 1: minutes when Dwight was off the floor and when we
Speaker 1: also had at least either Lebron or Russ on the floor,
Speaker 1: I bet you we were extremely dominant and that the
Speaker 1: only reason the game was close was because of those
Speaker 1: stretches that I'm referring to. So again, this is a
Speaker 1: sign for optimism, because I know you've described all the
Speaker 1: things that Dwight did great, and I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: undercut that, but in my opinion, our offense faltered in
Speaker 1: those minutes beyond what Dwight does good because in those
Speaker 1: minutes we were playing into the Utah Jazz strengths and
Speaker 1: turning ourselves into a jump shooting team, which is not
Speaker 1: what we do really well. But again, like fixing those
Speaker 1: little details, strategically playing Dwight at the right time, strategically
Speaker 1: playing Lebron at the right time, never staggering so incorrectly
Speaker 1: that we have no stars on the floor. If we
Speaker 1: can fix those things in addition to the effort, in
Speaker 1: addition to the modern scheming in addition to this engaged
Speaker 1: two way Lebron. That's when I start to get really excited.
Speaker 1: That's when when you're saying there's a good team in there,
Speaker 1: That's what I see is like the good team potential.
Speaker 1: Get rid of some of your own you know, self
Speaker 1: sabotage stuff, and play into your strengths more. That's when
Speaker 1: you can start to see this team be more consistently good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the numbers, you know, support your claim here. I'm
Speaker 1: just looking at it, you know, so do I only
Speaker 1: played three minutes you know, where he was on the floor,
Speaker 1: where Gobert wasn't on the floor. So uh that he
Speaker 1: played eighteen minutes, you know, matching up with Golbert. The
Speaker 1: Lakers aren't minus thirty two UM in that in that state. Uh,
Speaker 1: in those minutes, the Lakers had an eighty nine offensive rating.
Speaker 1: But I think, you know, a lot of that was
Speaker 1: the beginning of the third. To me, we just we
Speaker 1: stayed with that starting lineup too long to me, and
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, every I thought we missed a
Speaker 1: lot of open threes. Every badly missed a bunch of
Speaker 1: open threes. I thought to start um that quarter, And
Speaker 1: I think that kind of you know, pushed the numbers
Speaker 1: where they were. But it's gonna be a trade off
Speaker 1: all the time. I just think, you know, do I
Speaker 1: have It's just a changeup, right, It's just being able
Speaker 1: to be versatile. It's just to be able to throw
Speaker 1: different looks. So we don't have to play Lebron at
Speaker 1: center of the whole game. We don't have to play
Speaker 1: Dwight at the center of the whole game. We didn't tonight,
Speaker 1: Like we don't have to choose one, right, we don't
Speaker 1: have to be big and we don't have to be small.
Speaker 1: We can kind of move as the game flows. And
Speaker 1: I thought we did that tonight again. That's why I
Speaker 1: think Dwight Howard starting was just it was great for
Speaker 1: Lebron and he didn't have to start the game, you
Speaker 1: know already the back line guy um and I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, it just kind of limited their attacks and
Speaker 1: he was good and the small ball lineup the Lakers
Speaker 1: killed those where Dwight was on the floor. It was
Speaker 1: a short stint, it was like three or four minutes,
Speaker 1: but we were like a plus twenty in those minutes.
Speaker 1: But like it just like it took away Utah being
Speaker 1: able just attacked the rim, because what do we talk
Speaker 1: about when we went small with the teams? Do they
Speaker 1: just hunt the rim? Right? We saw Dann Box do
Speaker 1: that to us, John Morant do that to us. Um
Speaker 1: when we played less Denver, Denver just made every open
Speaker 1: three and we just quit in that game pretty early.
Speaker 1: But you know, other guards just attacked us when we
Speaker 1: played small, and I thought having Dwight out there at
Speaker 1: least limited that just have some changeups, um, have some
Speaker 1: versatility in the lineup, And that's what I though, Uh, Dwight,
Speaker 1: you know, the numbers don't match up with him playing well,
Speaker 1: they support your kind of claim there. I didn't know
Speaker 1: we got killed that much in those minutes. Um, it
Speaker 1: didn't feel that way, I guess to me. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just a changeup that we can kind of go to.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, giving Lebron a little bit of
Speaker 1: arrest there and obviously when a comes back you can
Speaker 1: feel that role full time, which again goes to your
Speaker 1: optimistic point there. You take Dwight Howard out and you
Speaker 1: put maybe the best defensive player in basketball, Like, what
Speaker 1: can this team become if if they can kind of
Speaker 1: build on this So Dwight Lebron James on the court
Speaker 1: at center without Dwight Howard Tonight plus twenty two, Lebron
Speaker 1: j Lebron James on court with Dwight Howard at center,
Speaker 1: minus eleven. We played eighteen point four minutes with Dwight
Speaker 1: on the floor with Lebron and eighteen point nine with
Speaker 1: Lebron on and Dwight off. Just just here, and again
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong, and and when it
Speaker 1: comes to single game plus minus two that can be weird.
Speaker 1: It's just a theory. It's a theory about the way
Speaker 1: that I think you should attack. Like Dwight is an
Speaker 1: awesome backup center because he does so well playing against
Speaker 1: backup setters right then in playing them. So I like
Speaker 1: leaning into that one. My last note that I had,
Speaker 1: and it's ironic because you actually just reminded me of
Speaker 1: it talking about Denver's three point shooting. You know, everyone
Speaker 1: was like I saw some people on Twitter going like,
Speaker 1: oh man, like the Utah Jazz mit some shots, and
Speaker 1: because I think they went over nine from three to
Speaker 1: start the start the fourth quarter if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1: And then in the Denver game, I heard a lot
Speaker 1: of people say like, oh, like, they just made all
Speaker 1: their shots. You know, this is my biggest disconnect with
Speaker 1: the analytic community. There is a certain amount of varying
Speaker 1: outcomes that goes without saying, you know, like, for instance,
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is randomly having a year where he's shooting
Speaker 1: poorly when he's wide open. That's I don't really know
Speaker 1: how to rationalize that. I just think it's random, you know.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's associated with anything. I think it's
Speaker 1: just random results. But I'm a big believer in the
Speaker 1: fact that the defense actually does have a good amount
Speaker 1: of impact on three point shots going in or whether
Speaker 1: or not they whether or not they go in. And
Speaker 1: when I watched the Denver game, I saw the Lakers
Speaker 1: giving up on rotations and giving up a ton of
Speaker 1: wide open shots. There were some contested ones in there,
Speaker 1: And whenever there is a contested one, you have a
Speaker 1: tendency as a basketball fan to be like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: like that's such bs, I can't believe he made that,
Speaker 1: And it's like, actually, over the totality of the game,
Speaker 1: those those contested shot percentages tend to kind of mimic
Speaker 1: pretty closely with the with the amount of open shots
Speaker 1: they get because they're directly related to comfort and rhythm.
Speaker 1: If you let the team get comfortable and make a
Speaker 1: ton of wide open shots, they're probably going to have
Speaker 1: the confidence to knock down the big ones later. And
Speaker 1: the reason why you taught me there were a couple
Speaker 1: of wide open ones in that fourth quarter that they missed,
Speaker 1: but a lot of the shots that they took in
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter where it's like oh, man like like yeah, like, oh,
Speaker 1: Lebron closed out on Jordan Clarkson and he kind of
Speaker 1: shot that from like twenty seven feet with Lebron's hand
Speaker 1: in his face, like that's not a good shot, you know,
Speaker 1: or like you know, or uh, Donovan Mitchell taking a
Speaker 1: quick early shot clock three because the Lakers have disrupted
Speaker 1: his rhythm all night and he's frustrated because he hasn't
Speaker 1: had a good night and he's just trying to make
Speaker 1: something happen. It's like, Okay, that's good defense leading to
Speaker 1: a miss and and you know, like I said, there's
Speaker 1: some chance there, there's some relying on some luck there
Speaker 1: that that takes place when it comes to three point shooting.
Speaker 1: But I think the Lakers, I think the Nuggets shot
Speaker 1: extremely well from three because the Lakers played a ship
Speaker 1: defensive game, and I think the Jazz shot poorly from
Speaker 1: three because the Lakers played a great defensive game. I
Speaker 1: think they're directly related. And I think when people try
Speaker 1: to gloss over that and trying to act as though
Speaker 1: like the Lakers got lucky on tonight's game or got
Speaker 1: unlucky against Denver, I think that's just a piss poor attitude.
Speaker 1: And I think it's it's deflecting and it's and it's
Speaker 1: not taking responsibility for outcomes. And I think that defense
Speaker 1: is absolutely related to it. I think the Lakers, the
Speaker 1: Lakers earned a poor Utah Jazz shooting night tonight. I
Speaker 1: firmly believe that absolutely we are you able to rewatch
Speaker 1: the Denver game? And I'm not sure he went back
Speaker 1: and watched that monstrosity, Okay, but no, no, no, yeah no,
Speaker 1: I just hate myself. But bones, you know, bones, bones Highland,
Speaker 1: like he was contested, but not really right that dude
Speaker 1: was comfortable on night. Utah was absolutely uncomfortable this whole game.
Speaker 1: Like I felt like every shot they were kind of
Speaker 1: there was a hand in their face, not just a
Speaker 1: hand in their face, like a guy sprinting at them,
Speaker 1: and you know you could see it the passes. I
Speaker 1: think they turned the ball over Jason like seven times
Speaker 1: in that first quarter. Like I think, like just because
Speaker 1: of the switching right and even the jumpers that they
Speaker 1: shot I thought were all contested. So I'm with you
Speaker 1: on that. And Utah is probably better than this, right, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they can play a better game. I still
Speaker 1: think they're a very good at least regular season team,
Speaker 1: will see in the playoffs. And we also get Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis back exactly absolutely, there it goes. And Utah, you
Speaker 1: know they were missing I guess hasan whiteside, but they
Speaker 1: were for the most part healthy, right, they had their
Speaker 1: full full core of of guys that are that are
Speaker 1: going to play when it matters. So, I mean, this
Speaker 1: is the biggest win of the year. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's close. Like this is really quickly into my and
Speaker 1: he can't remember Jimmy Butler got hurt in the first half,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, yes, exactly. And Cleveland, you know,
Speaker 1: they were a young team by the time like that
Speaker 1: on that mobile, I think barely play at any games
Speaker 1: uh so far during his season. Now, this is the
Speaker 1: biggest win the year man Utah's legit um, and this
Speaker 1: is there's stuff to build on this. And you know
Speaker 1: you can't say this turn the season around when you're
Speaker 1: five hundred and forty two games in, like you know
Speaker 1: that that would be kind of that'd be misguided to
Speaker 1: kind of say that yet. But I think there's stuff
Speaker 1: to build on. We play Indiana and Orlando next to
Speaker 1: winnable games like you can. You can win both of
Speaker 1: those even without a d S. So I think, you know,
Speaker 1: there's stuff to take from it. Hopefully a D comes
Speaker 1: back pretty soon on this road trip and then we
Speaker 1: can kind of build from it. Man, this is an
Speaker 1: exciting one. I agree. Did you have anything else on
Speaker 1: your list? I'm finished really quickly. I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: Am I just seeing things? Or did a Reason move
Speaker 1: a little bit better tonight? Like did he find at
Speaker 1: least he didn't find both of his legs, but did
Speaker 1: he find one leg tonight? Like did the right leg
Speaker 1: kind of you know, arrived to the did the did
Speaker 1: the right leg arrived to the season, Like I'm watching him,
Speaker 1: like you know, relocate Russ with driving the pain and
Speaker 1: I see a Reason sprint to the core to get
Speaker 1: to get the ball from and shoot the three, Like
Speaker 1: do you think he arrived from a little bit at least,
Speaker 1: like maybe one leg arrived, maybe he didn't get both
Speaker 1: legs back. And I seeing things with that, So I
Speaker 1: agree with you it was moving better tonight. But that
Speaker 1: that almost pissed me off a little bit more because
Speaker 1: you know, Trevor reason just knows better. Man, He's been
Speaker 1: around the league long enough to know that this team
Speaker 1: wasn't playing hard enough to win. And don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: I think conditioning is part of it. I think all
Speaker 1: that his age, getting into a group, getting into rhythm,
Speaker 1: I think that's all part of it. So I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to undercut that by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker 1: But Trevor's defensive effort in his first you know whatever
Speaker 1: it is half dozen games coming back from COVID was
Speaker 1: so poor, and in him suddenly turning it up a
Speaker 1: little bit when the rest of the team turns it up,
Speaker 1: makes me feel like it was a little more him
Speaker 1: and a little less conditioning. So that part's frustrating. But
Speaker 1: I do, you know, I'm I'm a believer in the
Speaker 1: Areasa fit. I think I think, I think you know,
Speaker 1: when this team. If if the idealized version of this
Speaker 1: team comes to to fruition and they consistently play hard,
Speaker 1: they lean more into wings, Anthony Davis comes back, and
Speaker 1: the talent chasm between them and all their opponents goes away.
Speaker 1: In that universe, I think Trevor Rees is a fantastic fit.
Speaker 1: But if if the team trends more like they did
Speaker 1: against Denver and it turns into more of a you know,
Speaker 1: a ship show, then his lack of athleticism and his
Speaker 1: age and his lack of enthusiasm could become a like
Speaker 1: a real negative. But I I definitely notice what you're
Speaker 1: talking about. Um, I think he I think he helps
Speaker 1: him a sense that he doesn't make mistakes, and I
Speaker 1: think he's a good I think he could when he
Speaker 1: really gets going to be a good kind of like
Speaker 1: plug in guy, as that fit starter, kind of like
Speaker 1: Wesley Matthews was for us in a lot of line
Speaker 1: ups last year. I'd look at him as kind of
Speaker 1: just like a sixth eight version of that, as long
Speaker 1: as he plays hard. Um. But yeah, he definitely played
Speaker 1: harder tonight and I did like that. Did you have
Speaker 1: anything else on your list? Yeah? Last thing? You know,
Speaker 1: he was our starting small forward right tonight, and again
Speaker 1: just kind of feel a little bit into the Optimist Cup.
Speaker 1: We don't really get a chance to pour into that
Speaker 1: cup very often, so I'm gonna continue to do it.
Speaker 1: He was. It was one for eight tonight, one for
Speaker 1: six from three and twenty seven minutes, So you basically
Speaker 1: got zero offense out of your small forward um and
Speaker 1: every badly I think also didn't shoot well, I don't
Speaker 1: remember what he shot, but and you were able to
Speaker 1: be a really good U TAK team. So that's just
Speaker 1: that's the context I want to keep from here. We
Speaker 1: won this game with our defense, Like you know, we
Speaker 1: hit a couple of big, tough shots, like you said,
Speaker 1: a couple of pull up threes in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: But we won this game with our defense, and I
Speaker 1: want to kind of hammer that, and that's something you
Speaker 1: can definitely build on even when Anthony Davis, before Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis comes back, agree there's no possible way to look
Speaker 1: at this game and not be enthusiastics. Like even if
Speaker 1: you told me like the Jazz are in the locker room,
Speaker 1: like knowing in their heads that they gave effort, I'd
Speaker 1: still be I'd still be thrilled by the outcome, because
Speaker 1: when you factor in the actual predicament, the Lakers are
Speaker 1: in with their superstar power forward not available, with their
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook trade being mostly uh Like, I think you'd
Speaker 1: be hard pressed to find someone who's thrilled with the
Speaker 1: outcome of the Russell Westbrook trade. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: I think most of us, I think are ranging from
Speaker 1: either like me, like completely like disappointed and upset about it,
Speaker 1: to you like not liking it but at least accepting it.
Speaker 1: You know, like there's those are like the very outcomes there. Well,
Speaker 1: like when you factor that in and the fact that
Speaker 1: our our mid level exception guy hasn't played a minute,
Speaker 1: probably won't play a minute because he had another setback today,
Speaker 1: Like when you factor all of that in. For us
Speaker 1: to handle the Utah Jazz on National TV when they
Speaker 1: were fully healthy the way that we did after giving
Speaker 1: up the lead and falling behind by ten points, I
Speaker 1: take it as a huge positive. But yeah, so that's
Speaker 1: all we offered tonight. Guys. This is gonna be on
Speaker 1: dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time.
Speaker 1: Like always, this will also be on our podcast feed
Speaker 1: here and about thirty minutes. We always appreciate you guys,
Speaker 1: support and hanging with us. We will be back for
Speaker 1: a busy week of Lakers basketball on Wednesday. We will
Speaker 1: see you then. Enjoy the rest of your week guys,
Speaker 1: and we we can talk to you in a couple of days.
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone,